Four members of Congress called attention to the bipartisan work their staffers put in on Thursday.
The lawmakers, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Reps. James Comer (D-Ky.), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), honored the work of their staff at The Hill’s third annual Notable Staffers event.
During a panel moderated by The Hill’s Julia Manchester, all four lawmakers shouted out their respective nominees: Dan Kunsman, Barrasso’s staff director, Jake Greenberg, the chief investigations counsel on the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Comer, Carlos Paz, Gomez’s chief of staff and Greta Gao, chief counsel for Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, which Raskin is the ranking member of.
Furthermore, the quartet emphasized that much of the work their staffers do behind the scenes is bipartisan in nature. That starts with constituent services, with Raskin saying lawmakers in Washington are “not just there to represent our party, we’re there to represent everybody in our district, and really our state and the whole country.”
“[If] you got a problem with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, education loans, NIH, whatever it is, we go to bat for you,” Raskin added. “We never ask, ‘Oh, are you a Democrat? Are you a Republican? Are you Green? Are you Libertarian?’ If you live in my district, we’re going to go to bat for you.”
Barrasso echoed that point and said that despite the “performative politics” on Capitol Hill, staffers on both sides of the aisle want to “keep the government moving forward.” The Wyoming Republican became Senate Majority Whip in January.
“You have a lot of serious people on the hill, serious, committed staffers who really do want to make sure the country works,” Barrasso said. Gomez, who said that his first internship was with a Republican County supervisor in his home county of Riverside, Calif., stressed that those in the opposite parties “are not our enemies.”
“We might fight and get a little rowdy, that’s okay,” Gomez said. “It’s like a big dysfunctional family at times, But if we understand that it’s about keeping that whole family together, that’s the most important part.”
Comer noted the cooperation between his committee staff during his time as chair and ranking member alongside former chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), specifically on postal reform in 2022 and an investigation into pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) last year.
Ultimately, though, Comer said it is on Congress to not only deliver results for the American people but also to lower the temperature. He said, in fact, that’s what he thinks the public wants to see.
“I believe that there’s a [going to] be a point at which the American people demand that Congress get back to regular order, and that Congress try to be more civil, and that there be some aspect of consensus-building,” Comer said.
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